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Girls make preference comeback in families

Marian Borges, Peter Martin

Number of girls rebounding ... a new study has found the ratio of boys to girls in South Korea is becoming more even. Photo: Bloomberg

THE world is pulling back from a looming shortage of women.

Cheap ultrasound technology and selective abortions in South Korea, China and India had pushed down the proportion of female to male babies to historic lows, leaving millions of men without marriage prospects and resulting in the abduction of women and sex crimes.

In China, the number of boys born per 100 girls has peaked at 119. In South Korea it has been as high as 116.5 and in India 116. The usual ratio is 106.

The study, by researchers from Columbia University and Seoul National University, might "offer a preview of the demographic future of India and China", meaning a global female shortage might never eventuate.

Chinese authorities had been predicting an excess of 24 million men over women of marrying age by the end of the decade.

Economists Lena Edlund and Chulhee Lee said greater wealth in South Korea had made boys less important as a means of providing for their parents in old age. It had allowed parents to feel they could sacrifice having a boy in order to have a better shot at getting grandchildren.

"Sons are more productive than daughters, grandchildren through sons are more valued than grandchildren through daughters, but grandchildren through daughters are better than no grandchildren," the authors said.

In Australia, there was no clear evidence of what parents preferred, although Sydney IVF reported that before sex selection was made illegal in 2006 its customers who made a choice preferred girls 59 to 41.

An Australian National University demographer, Peter McDonald said the overwhelming concern of Australians seemed to be to balance families.

"The desire to have one boy and one girl is stronger in English-speaking countries. It's a stronger trend that doesn't occur in other parts of Europe or, say, in Scandinavian countries."

The medical tourism company Global Health Travel has helped about 100 Australian couples travel to Thailand for family-balancing IVF treatment in the past year. Packages to the Superior Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic in Thailand cost $11,000.

A review of the Australian guidelines is planned this year, with many clinicians and patient support groups expected to push for the rules to be opened up.